OREANDA-NEWS. October 29, 2009. ASTARTA's sugar plants processed about 700 thousand tons of sugar beet and produced more than 100 thousand tons of high quality sugar.

Following the investments made, the implementation of new technologies, and the introduction of best practice, the average consumption of natural gas at ASTARTA' sugar plants for processing of one ton of sugar beet reduced y-o-y by 25% to 35 cubic meters. The best result is achieved at Yareskivsky sugar plant - 29 cubic meters. ASTARTA's sugar plants also cut y-o-y the consumption of limestone by 33% and coal by 27%. The sugar yield increased to 14.8% (the same period of the previous year - 13.5%).

Harvesting of sugar beet has been completed on the area of 18 thousand ha (54% of total beet planted area). The average gross yield is 43 tons per ha that is higher than Ukrainian average by approximately 40%.